Besides DE Shaw, RIL is likely to approach other financial institutional partners for various specific financial business services; similar to the format it has followed in its retail subsidiary.

MUKESH AMBANI led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has been famous for its colossal undertakings and mammoth sized projects. Staying true to the pattern, RIL’s most recent tie-up with global private equity fund house DE Shaw to enter into the financial sector is now taking shape.

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Focused on both corporate as well as individual customers, the joint venture with the $20 billion hedge fund institution DE Shaw will allow Reliance to enter India’s financial service sector in a non-traditional manner, offering non-ubiquitous services such as energy and carbon trading, energy and carbon derivatives, private equity, mutual funds, financial service distribution, infrastructure funding, equity and debt funding for corporate sector and other such security linked products.

Given Reliance’s reputation for ultra high-value projects in every one of its undertakings, the foray into the financial sector will be no different. Although this sector had been previously out of bounds for Mukesh Ambani, with dissolution of non-compete pact, opportunity to tap this omnipresent segment has readily emerged. To break into this crowded segment Reliance has planned many a unique set of offerings up its sleeves that will allow it to carve a niche for itself in the financial trading market of India.

The finer partnership details of the deal with DE Shaw, such as the shareholding pattern and businesses to undertake, will be discussed and determined at the next board meeting slated for April 21. As of yet, work is underway on designing the final blue-print of the venture that will allow Reliance to tap into this lucrative category with a unique identity.